kenscs
10-03-2015, 01:10 PM
After 2 years of contemplating and experimenting on how to deal with a ex-MOD that had been painted with Latex Housepaint, I found Citristrip did the job exactly as needed.
I posted before about using Airplane stripper. There were two problems with that: 1). It is toxic stuff and without proper respiratory protection and skin protection is nasty. 2.) It takes EVERYTHING off right down to aluminum skin. As I mentioned in my last post about this, it was like a walk down memory lane. I could see the layers from Factory Finish Bronze Green, to Red Ambulance, to Camo.
To go with something significantly less toxic, I figured I would give Citristrip a try. Well it worked better than I expected, but not for some of the reasons I would have thought.
As you can see in the photos, the Citristrip removed the Latex paint like a charm. It ate through it and "popped" it right off the base layer like it was a kid eating candy. With another application it then ate through the layer below that of the MOD Camo job paint. Not sure actually what they had used. I think it was a basic enamel, but hard to tell. The really good thing WAS.... Drum roll please .... It left the original Factory Bronze Green untouched and looking like it rolled out of the factory. See photos below. I will see how the next section goes and what is underneath. I still going to shoot some primer layers over the outside since before I knew it would leave the original paint, I took it down to bare metal in some places and going to dip the door frame in a bath of rust converter and then epoxy primer or some kind of rustoleum bath. I noticed on ECR's website where they document restorations, they seem to dip the steel parts in a bath of red stuff.
Now trying to decide if I want this to be a perfect paint job, or just good enough. If I want it perfect, I will have to take out the aluminum top strip by removing rivets. Anyone have any opinion on the "pain" factor and cost factor of getting into the rivet replacement process? Am I going to find myself dealing with lots of rivets anyway at some point and might as well bite the Rivet Bullet? Any good sources of proper rivets installation tools? I see a recent thread on the proper rivets themselves.
109861098710988
I posted before about using Airplane stripper. There were two problems with that: 1). It is toxic stuff and without proper respiratory protection and skin protection is nasty. 2.) It takes EVERYTHING off right down to aluminum skin. As I mentioned in my last post about this, it was like a walk down memory lane. I could see the layers from Factory Finish Bronze Green, to Red Ambulance, to Camo.
To go with something significantly less toxic, I figured I would give Citristrip a try. Well it worked better than I expected, but not for some of the reasons I would have thought.
As you can see in the photos, the Citristrip removed the Latex paint like a charm. It ate through it and "popped" it right off the base layer like it was a kid eating candy. With another application it then ate through the layer below that of the MOD Camo job paint. Not sure actually what they had used. I think it was a basic enamel, but hard to tell. The really good thing WAS.... Drum roll please .... It left the original Factory Bronze Green untouched and looking like it rolled out of the factory. See photos below. I will see how the next section goes and what is underneath. I still going to shoot some primer layers over the outside since before I knew it would leave the original paint, I took it down to bare metal in some places and going to dip the door frame in a bath of rust converter and then epoxy primer or some kind of rustoleum bath. I noticed on ECR's website where they document restorations, they seem to dip the steel parts in a bath of red stuff.
Now trying to decide if I want this to be a perfect paint job, or just good enough. If I want it perfect, I will have to take out the aluminum top strip by removing rivets. Anyone have any opinion on the "pain" factor and cost factor of getting into the rivet replacement process? Am I going to find myself dealing with lots of rivets anyway at some point and might as well bite the Rivet Bullet? Any good sources of proper rivets installation tools? I see a recent thread on the proper rivets themselves.
109861098710988